1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fabrication method for a semiconductor device including a lithography step, an exposure method for forming a pattern image by exposure transfer of an original pattern, a pattern correction method used for exposure transfer of a pattern image, and a semiconductor device obtained using a lithography step.
2. Description of the Related Art
Usually, a semiconductor device is fabricated using a lithography step. At the lithography step, a circuit pattern formed on a glass original plate called mask or reticle (hereinafter referred to merely as “mask”) is transferred by exposure to a wafer substrate, to which a photosensitive resin material called resist is applied, using an exposure apparatus, and then the transferred pattern is developed. The circuit pattern is formed on the wafer substrate thereby.
In some semiconductor device fabricated through the lithography step, a circuit pattern is divisionally drawn at the lithography step because it has a great chip length, for example, like a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) line sensor used for a copying machine or a scanner apparatus. In particular, at the lithography step, an entire pattern of a semiconductor device to be formed is divided into a plurality of patterns, and the divisional patterns are disposed in an exposure field of an exposure apparatus and connected to each other on a wafer substrate to draw a chip pattern of the semiconductor device of a great size. As a result, a semiconductor device having a chip length greater than that of the exposure area of the exposure apparatus can be drawn on a wafer substrate. The technique described is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 9-293661.